The big picture: Dish Network's Sling TV finished the year with 2.486 million paying subscribers, an increase of just 12,000 subscribers compared to the end of 2020. Despite the slow growth, Sling TV has likely retained its position as the third-largest over-the-top Internet television provider in the US behind Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV.
Dish Network recently announced that Sling TV subscribers can now use cryptocurrency to pay for their monthly subscription thanks to a new partnership with BitPay. The blockchain payment provider supports more than 90 different crypto wallet applications, although Sling TV will only accept Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Wrapped Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Litecoin, Shiba Inu and five USD-pegged stablecoins for payment - at least, initially.
Sling TV said BitPay is only available to users with an existing monthly subscription. New users must pay with a traditional payment method to activate their account. After the first month, they can switch to BitPay.
While the dream of true a la carte television lives on, Sling TV is about as close as you can get to it. Pricing starts at $35 per month for either the Sling Blue or Sling Orange package, or you can get both for $50 a month. There are no annual contracts, you can watch across a variety of platforms, and you can customize packages with add-on channel bundles for an additional fee. All plans come with 50 hours of DVR cloud storage.